At the begining of this March, I spent a Saturday at Serang, Banten, Indonesia. I had two missions when I went there, first, I wanted to visit Rumah Dunia (www.rumahdunia.net), second I wanted to visit my friend Mita and Firman who just had a baby.
I arrived at 10 o clock at Rumah Dunia. I met Mbak Tyas, the wife of Gola Gong, the Indonesian writer that started the Rumah Dunia Comunity, and I met 2 othwr voulenteers there. At that time Rumah Dunia was quite empty because, at that time there was no activity there, at the same time, the daughter of Gola Gong was jusrt lounching a book called 'Beatiful Days' at Jakarta.
Any how I took a long time walking around the place. Rumah Dunia is a comunity in Banten. At this place there are many daily activities, such as :
-- Wisata Gambar (drawing ) every Monday at 13.oo - 17.oo ( the Tutor is from Al-Azhar)
-- Wisata Musik (Music) every Tuesday at 13.oo - 17.oo ( the Tutors are kak Rizal and Kak Firman)
-- Theater every Wednesday at 13.oo - 17.oo ( the tutors are kak Peter, Kopal, and Ade)
-- Wisata Tulis dan Komputer ( writting and computers) every Thursday at 13.oo - 17.oo
-- And Story Telling at 13.00 - 17.oo by kak Igun
I walked around the place. I found that the place was quite big. It has a a few librarie. A library of childerns book, a library for teenagers and grown ups, and another library full of English books. I wondered how nice it would be if a lot of places in Indonesia has places like this, at least a place wher anybody can come and get free access to information.
I read the wall magazines around there. I found out that Rumah Dunia has once made a book exhibition there. At the exibition there were a lot of books sold with a cheap price so the children were able to by books with there own pocket money.
At other times, Rumah Dunia has made and will make other different kind of activities such as writting workshops (for grown ups), book bazar, writers meetings, and much more. What is interesting is, whenever there is a activity where there are people from out of town coming, the people don't stay at hotels, but they stay at the houses of the villagers around. They rent rooms from the villagers. This is a great idea, because it helps the villagers to add there income. It also helps the people from out of town and the villagers to know each other beter. They both can learn about new people and cultures.
After visiting rumah dunia, I went to Mita's house to see her baby. Her baby was a boy, named Syair.After visiting Mita I wanted to go right back to Jakarta, but Mita asked me and Ria to walk around town.
So I went out with Mita, Syair, and Ria to go to the place where the kingdom of Banten was. Actually it is a verry beatiful place. It reminded me of Keraton, Jogjakarta, but there was no building anymore. Long ago the building was burnt.
I also saw the tower of the mosque there. Actually it was very nice. To go up the tower I should walk throuh a very small path to go upstairs.
The place i visited was verry beatiful, but there was a lot of people asking for money around. When I went to the tower, at three times, three different people asked us for money, Rp1000,- each so we could pass by.
The garden was beatiful to, but each time we walked pass the garden, there are always children following us around asking for money.
There was a tourist that gave out money and a bunch of children, maybe about twenty came to her to catch the money she gave.
I also visited the museum and enjoyed seing the things and reading the history there. Unfortunately there was not much history written in the meuseum, but I thaught it was nice.
After the visit, i went back to Jakarta. Because Serang was not that far from Jakarta, I think, if I have another oportunity, I think I am going to visit the place again.
